


The Rising Sun

by AliveandMel



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Aithusa is a cat, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur has daddy issues, Barista Gwen, Bartender Arthur, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Jealous Arthur Pendragon, POV Arthur, just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14054016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliveandMel/pseuds/AliveandMel
Summary: Arthur and Gwen meet when Gwen orders a beer in the club Arthur bartends at. This might be his chance to finally be happy.A short one-shot of their first date and their first feelings for each other, from Arthur's perspective.





	The Rising Sun

Arthur mixes a cosmopolitan for a slightly tipsy older woman with more botox than any of his dad’s girlfriends. He slides her the drink and turns to his next customer. She’s dark-skinned and pretty, and something about her is very familiar, but Arthur can’t quite put a finger on what it is.

“What’ll you have?” he asks, putting on his best bartender smile.

“Just a beer, thanks,” she says, smiling back at him.

Arthur’s surprised by her order. With her sparkly strapless silver mini-dress and cubic zirconia chandelier earrings, he was expecting her to ask for something fruity and saccharine, potentially with a cute little umbrella. He pours her the beer, though, feeling slightly intrigued.

“You don't seem like a beer type of girl,” he says, “I’m Arthur.”

“I’m Gwen,” she says, “I know who you are. You’re Morgana’s brother. And what the hell makes you think I’m not a beer type of girl?” She’s not offended, but rather teasing.

“You know Morgana?” he asks, but before she gets the chance to answer, his boss yells at him to get to work.

“Sorry,” he says, “customers. I’ll come back.”

“I’ll just ask for more drinks when I’m done with this beer,” she says, smiling, “Then you’ll _have_ to come back.”

Arthur glances back at her as he mixes a bloody mary for a long-haired, nervous-looking Irish fellow. Gwen’s talking to Gwaine, of all people. They’re laughing as if they’re old friends and Arthur feels a stirring of jealousy in his stomach when Gwaine swings his arm around Gwen’s shoulder. This is ridiculous; he barely knows who she is, and they’ve only spoken once as far as he knows. This is the sort of behavior he’s been trying to stop.

The second Arthur is done sliding a tonic and gin across the bar to a vaguely reptilian-looking kid who looks barely old enough to be at a nightclub, he turns back to Gwen, eager to talk to her again. Gwaine is gone now, thank God. He’s in a corner of the room with a tiny blonde in a miniskirt, whispering something in her ear that probably involves the dirty things they’re going to do later. Arthur doesn’t want to think about that though. He usually tries not to think too much about Gwaine’s extracurricular activities. They make him nauseous. And lonely, but mostly nauseous. It's Gwaine, and they're friends, and he's not okay with those images.

“Refill?” he asks Gwen.

“Surprise me. Because apparently, I don’t seem like a beer type of girl,” she says dryly.

“Sorry,” Arthur says, sheepishly, “That was kind of presumptuous.”

“It was,” says Gwen, frankly, “But it’s nice that you realized that.”

“Thanks,” says Arthur, as he begins to drop fruit into a highball glass as slowly as possible to drag out the length of time they get to talk, “How do you know my sister?”

“We’re friends. We took a journalism class together in college,” she says.

“Oh, you’re a journalist?” he asks, intrigued. He’s hoping that she works with Morgana; then he could have a good chance to see her again. She’s already got him pretty far under her spell.

“No,” she laughs. It’s pretty, and Arthur’s heart begins to thump against the inside of his chest, “I’m actually in engineering college. Journalism was fun, but robots have always been my passion. I’m a nerd, I know.”

Arthur can see it. He can easily imagine Gwen sticking her curly dark hair up with a pencil, the way girls do somehow and chewing on her lip as she stared over schematics.

“You seem really intelligent,” he says because he’s unable to come up with a better compliment than that. He wants to punch himself in the face. Gwen looks surprised for a second, then giggles.

“You’re getting yourself back into my good graces,” she says.

Arthur feels ridiculously proud of himself. He sticks his chest out a little more and raises his chin, as some of the old Pendragon swagger comes back to him.

“What else do you do?” asks Arthur, as he pours Pimm’s no. 6 into the glass. He slides the drink to her and stays. No one else is waiting for a drink at the moment, and he reckons his boss is in a good mood anyway.

“I work part-time as a barista,” she says with a self-deprecating laugh, “So I’m not completely broke, you know?”

Arthur doesn’t know. What he does know is that as much as he plays like money’s tight, the truth is that if he runs out of cash he can always ask his father for more. The only problem he has is pride. His whole life he’s wanted to make his own path, so he got a job as a bartender and moved into a slightly dilapidated flat with some annoying North Irishman named Merlin. Arthur’s truly just another angsty rich kid: a British Holden Caulfield with daddy issues and a bartending job. No matter how much he tries to distance himself from his father, he’s still a Pendragon, and that means money comes easy.

He doesn’t say any of these things. He doesn’t have to. Gwen is friends with Morgana; she probably already knows all of the things he was thinking. Besides, he finds that his issues don’t make for good conversation when he’s the one behind the bar.

Before Arthur gets to ask her which coffee shop she works at, so he can stop by, a pretty blonde girl appears out of nowhere and pulls Gwen away to a gaggle of their girlfriends. Gwen waves to him before she disappears amongst the mob of girls. Arthur’s shift ends before she comes back, but he waits for half an hour after he’s done for her to maybe return to the bar. After another 30 minutes, she’s still on the dance floor. She’s grinding on someone now, a tall, tan guy with stubble and admittedly nice hands.

Arthur gives up and leaves. He regrets it the moment he exits the club, but he really doesn’t feel like going back inside and waiting awkwardly for a girl who might not even come back, so he gets in his car and drives home.

 

Arthur wakes up the next morning in a desperate need for coffee. He’s craving a latte and a warm croissant. He doesn’t really want to leave his flat, but unfortunately, he’s quite useless with anything in the kitchen and doesn’t know how to use his espresso machine. Besides, there are no croissants in their apartment, and Merlin is nowhere to be found either. All they have is Irish soda bread, and Arthur’s not feeling very hungry for that.

He checks his phone to see if his roommate has texted him about where he’s gone and finds out that he’s gone to some new hipster coffee shop nearby. It’s called “The Rising Sun” and Arthur looks up directions. He’s not trying to be clingy or anything, but he’s hungry and The Rising Sun probably sells the lattes and croissants he’s craving. He gets in his car and goes.

When he walks into The Rising Sun, the first thing he sees is Gwen.

She’s standing behind the counter writing something on a cup as a tall, skinny Asian woman narrates her perfect coffee drink to her. She looks different outside of the club setting. She’s wearing an apron, a few strands of hair have slipped out of her bun, and she’s not wearing any makeup, but somehow, she still looks absolutely beautiful. Their eyes meet across the room and her mouth drops open for a second before she beams at him.

Arthur gets in line. Merlin hasn’t noticed him yet; he’s too busy typing away furiously at a table in the corner of the cafe. Arthur’s glad. He wants to talk to Gwen without his best friend suggestively waggling his eyebrows at him like he does every time Arthur speaks to a girl. When he reaches the counter, he gives Gwen his most charming smile.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he says.

“Hello, Arthur,” she responds, warmly. He feels his heart stutter in his chest. “What’s your order?”

It takes him a second to remember what he came here for, but he gathers his wits and tells her what he wants.

“It’s coming right up,” says Gwen, “I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

In any other situation, to any other cute girl, Arthur would say something classy and flirtatious like, “I’ll call you if you give me your number,” but instead, he just says “Okay,” and then walks over to where Merlin is, cursing himself.

“Merlin, how do girls work?” asks Arthur, sitting down next to him in a huff.

Merlin eyes him bemusedly.

“How am _I_ supposed to know? I’m not a girl.”

“Of all the things you could have said, that was the most useless option possible.”

Merlin rolls his eyes good-naturedly and goes back to whatever he’s doing (probably something illegal and hackery) on his laptop.

“If you’re talking about Gwen, you should just get her flowers,” he says conversationally, “Or just ask her on a date when you pick up your coffee. She’s pretty low maintenance.”

“How did you know I was talking about Gwen?” asks Arthur, “It’s freaky how you do that.”

Merlin looks at him like he’s thick, and that the answer to his question is obvious.

“She was the one you were just talking to. You looked constipated when you were walking over here. Then you asked me about girls. I put two and two together. I’m not that much of an idiot, Arthur. Unlike you, my head is not always up my arse,” responds Merlin, as he types furiously, “Dammit. Why does Olaf always encrypt his servers?”

“Probably because he’s a politician,” responds Arthur, “And because you keep trying to hack into his computers.”

Gwen calls Arthur’s name for him to pick up his order, and Merlin smirks at him when he stands up so eagerly that his chair wobbles.

“Shut up,” says Arthur.

“I didn’t say anything!” protests Merlin, but he still looks smug, so Arthur glares at him and goes to pick up his order.

“Do you want to get some coffee?” Arthur asks, “I mean, not coffee. You work at a coffee shop. You could get coffee any day. Not a drink either, I guess, since I’m a bartender,” He pauses and takes a deep breath, “Let me start over.”

“Okay,” says Gwen, smiling softly.

“Do you want to go on a date with me?” asks Arthur.

“I’d love to,” she says. There is pink coloring her cheeks as she picks up a sharpie and reaches for Arthur’s cup. He hands it to her, and she scrawls her number on it.

“I’ll see you, then,” she says.

Arthur has to stop himself from cheering as he walks away. He has his caffeine and his French pastry, and a very fuzzy, glossy feeling in his heart.

Arthur and Gwen make a date for Wednesday night when they’re both free. In between, Arthur stops by The Rising Sun several times, hoping to see Gwen again. It turns out she works weekends in the morning and on Monday and Tuesday she’s there in the afternoon. Wednesday she’s not there in the morning or afternoon, so Arthur assumes she doesn’t work on that day. He’s a little disappointed, but he’s fine with it because he’s going to see her later anyway.

Maybe it’s a little creepy that he’s trying to figure out and memorize her entire work schedule, but he’s been dropping a lot of cash on getting coffee twice a day to see her, and he would rather not have to go visit his dad to ask for rent money. The lattes at The Rising Sun are amazing, but Gwen’s the main reason he’s been going there instead of Starbucks. That, and his father invested in Starbucks and he’s glad he’s found a way to further distance himself from his overbearing parent.

Like he said, daddy issues.

Arthur arrives at Gwen’s door with a bouquet of flowers. It’s made up of lavender, jasmine, and white roses because that’s what Merlin said she would like. He doesn’t know why Merlin would know that about Gwen and part of him is bothered by it, but when he asked, all Merlin did was grin and tell him to “just get the damn flowers.”

He knocks gently on the door. When no one answers, he raises his fist to knock harder, but before he does, the door is swung open by Elyan. Arthur, not expecting to see one of his friends from Eton in his date’s apartment, stands there on the porch with his fist in the air in surprise.

“This isn’t your apartment,” he says.

“I can’t believe you’re going on a date with my sister,” says Elyan, by way of response.

“I can’t believe she’s your sister,” says Arthur, “How come I didn’t know she was your sister?”

“Probably because you’ve always had your head too far up your arse to notice anything,” he responds, but not without a certain degree of fondness.

This is the second time someone has said that to him this week and Arthur is slightly offended, but part of him recognizes this to be true. He’s starting to panic a little bit. How many friends does he have that know Gwen? How come they only met at the club Arthur works at? Did they meet before, and does he just not remember it?

“Don’t worry,” says Elyan, “You never actually met officially; I think you’ve just seen each other on occasion.”

Arthur audibly sighs in relief.

“Look, Arthur,” says Elyan threateningly, “You’re my mate and all, and I understand that you’re not the same rich, white, privileged arsehole you used to be, but if my sister comes back from this date with any indication that you’ve disappointed her or hurt her feelings in any way, I will personally punch you in the face. Understand?”

Arthur nods nervously, “Yes, I understand.”

Then Gwen suddenly appears in the doorway. It seems to Arthur that every time he sees her, she gets more and more beautiful. She’s in a pink flowy dress and the front strands of her hair are braided back. There are jasmine flowers in her hair.

“Your hair matches the flowers,” says Arthur, holding out the bouquet and feeling slightly dazed.

Gwen smiles and takes the outstretched flowers and sniffs it delicately.

“This was really sweet of you,” she says, “How did you know I like lavender?”

Arthur panics internally for a second. Should he say he asked Merlin? The first thing that comes to his head is ‘lavender smells good, just like you,’ but that’s creepy and he’s never actually been close enough to her to know what she smells like anyway. He doesn’t know why that thought was the first thing to come to his head. Maybe he is a little creepy. Or maybe it’s just that he imagined her smelling like lavender while. . . nevermind.

“It’s pretty,” he says, suavely, “It reminded me of you.”

Elyan guffaws. Arthur forgot he was there. He feels a little embarrassed but Gwen shoves her brother’s shoulder and tells him to shut up.

“Put these flowers away,” she tells Elyan, “Cut an inch off the stems, diagonally. Don’t forget.” She hands them to him and then steps down onto the porch next to Arthur. She standing very close to him, and he’s delighted by the fact that she actually does smell like lavender.

“Let’s go, Arthur,” she says. She hooks her arm in his as they walk to his car.

“Don’t have too much fun!” calls Elyan. Arthur and Gwen both look over their shoulders to glare at him. Then they make eye contact and laugh.

“Sorry about my brother,” says Gwen, as Arthur helps her into his car, “Is this a Porsche?”

“It’s okay. I’m used to him. We went to school together,” says Arthur, “And yes. My dad bought it for me.”

Arthur is painfully aware of how much he sounds like a spoiled rich kid, and he really doesn’t want to feel that way.

“I know you two both went to Eton,” says Gwen, “I saw you around a few times, Isn’t it funny that we never spoke to each other?”

“I’m honestly glad that you didn’t talk to me,” says Arthur, “I had a big head.”

“Yeah, I remember Elyan complaining about you all the time,” Gwen must notice Arthur’s slightly panicked expression, because she quickly adds, “Don’t worry. I remember him saying you were actually cool later.” She laughs. “He doesn’t usually change his opinions on people that easily.”

“What’s your opinion of me?” asks Arthur, cheekily.

Gwen bites the inside of her cheek, as she pretends to think hard about it.

“Hmm. . . I think I’ll save my answer for after our date,” she says, teasingly.

“Come on!” exclaims Arthur, “You really had me on edge there.”

“Good things come to those who wait.”

“What if I don’t want to wait?” whines Arthur.

“Sucks,” says Gwen, laughing, “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” says Arthur, “You’ll love it, I promise.”

They go to a vintage-style drive-in movie (once again, something Merlin recommended. Arthur doesn’t know where he would be without Merlin, honestly, but he’ll deny ever thinking that to the end of his days). The movie that’s playing is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which Arthur has never heard of, but Gwen seems to be enjoying herself. They have fish and chips from the stand a block away from the drive-in cinema. Gwen recommends them, and they’re really good. The fries have curry powder on them and the fish fills Arthur with warmth.

Gwen has good taste in late night street food, Arthur finds out.

At one point during the movie, Gwen leans her head on his shoulder, and Arthur puts his arm around her shoulders, feeling weirdly happy.

“Big Daddy’s such a creep,” she whispers.

Arthur snickers, “What else would you expect with a nickname like Big Daddy?”

Gwen snorts, then with a look of mortification in her eyes, covers her mouth with her hand. Arthur grins and looks down at her, his eyes twinkling.

“That was cute,” he says.

She hits his arm. He slowly inches his hand closer to hers. He thinks he’s being sneaky, but Gwen knows what he’s doing and slips her smaller hand into his. Gwen’s hand isn’t very soft; in fact, it’s a little rough. He likes it though. They’re still very nice hands. She has a callus on the side of her middle finger; Arthur reckons it’s from holding a pencil. Because she’s an engineering student, she probably sketches a lot. He realizes his hands are probably softer than hers, but before he can injure his own masculinity, she squeezes his hand and he forgets what he’s thinking about.

Arthur drives her home afterward and walks her to her front door. Gwen pulls her keys out of her purse, but before she unlocks the door, she leans forward and kisses Arthur. She’s on her tiptoes, her hands resting on Arthur’s chest. She’s a really good kisser; better than anyone else Arthur’s kissed, for certain. Her lips are really soft and her hands are really warm and he’s got his hands on her waist. He pulls her into him and her hands move up into his hair. He’s floating now.

She pulls away before Arthur gets truly woozy. They stand there for a few moments and smile at each other, neither of them really wanting to go.

“You told me you’d tell me your opinion of me at the end of our date,” he says.

“I like you,” responds Gwen, “What do you think of me?”

“You’re not. . .” says Arthur, then pauses.

“I’m not. . .” repeats Gwen.

“You’re not what I expected,” says Arthur.

“Gracious,” says Gwen, laughing, “For a second there, I thought you were going to say I’m not like other girls. Dodged a bloody bullet.”

She kisses him again and then goes inside. When the door closes, Arthur slumps against the wall and laughs. Then he gathers his wits and drives back home. He’s totally singing along to every song on the radio on his way home.

When Arthur gets back to his flat, he’s smiling so hard his face hurts a little bit. Merlin looks up from his spot on the couch, where he’s cuddling his cat, Aithusa.

“I see it went well,” he says, grinning, while Aithusa licks his arm.

“Shut up, Merlin,” says Arthur, more out of habit than anything.

“You’re welcome!” yells Merlin, as Arthur goes to his room, still smiling.

 

Gwen writes down an annoying blonde customer’s order (large soy latte, decaf, with whip and two shots of espresso). She’s fighting the urge to wonder out loud why anyone would order decaf and then add espresso (it’s like asking for a bloody nonfat whole milk latte. It’s useless) when she sees Merlin and Arthur walk in. She waves to them and they wave back as they enter the line. They’re bickering like brothers, and she’s surprised by the fact that they walked in together.

“I didn’t know you two knew each other,” she says, confused.

“Hi, Gwen. We’re roommates,” says Merlin, “Can I have a matcha latte with coconut milk, please?”

“Will it be the usual, Arthur?” asks Gwen, “Latte and a croissant?”

“Yes, please. How do you know Merlin?”

Gwen freezes while she writes Arthur’s order on a cup. She doesn’t really know how to answer that question. It’s a little awkward to let the guy you just went on a date with, the guy you _like,_ know that you also went on a date or two with his roommate.

“Morgana set us up on a date,” she says, “But it didn’t really work out, so we stayed friends.”

“Wait, you date--”

“Gwen has more customers,” says Merlin, taking Arthur’s arm and steering him away, Arthur spluttering the whole time.

Gwen smiles fondly and amusedly after them and gets to taking more orders.

“I can’t believe you dated her!” Hisses Arthur as Merlin steers him to his seat.

“It was hardly dating. We just went out twice.”

“Did you kiss?”

“Not while we were on a date.”

“Merlin!”

“We were playing spin the bottle! What, did you two not?”

“We did,” says Arthur defensively, “And it was great.”

“Good for you then,” says Merlin, “You probably have a chance.”

Arthur’s still fuming at Merlin’s betrayal by the time their names get called, so he makes Merlin get their orders on his own. Maybe he shouldn’t have because when Merlin comes back, struggling to hold onto two lattes without dropping the bag with Arthur’s croissant, he has a message from the barista.

“Gwen says you need to get over yourself,” he says.

Arthur looks past him to the woman in question, who is taking orders at the counter. They make eye contact and she raises an eyebrow at him.

“Stop pouting,” says Merlin, “Give her a smile.”

“I’m not pouting,” says Arthur. He’s definitely pouting. Gwen’s not looking at him anymore. Evidently, she has better things to do. Arthur thinks he might go order something else just to talk to her again, but he’s not done with his latte and he hasn’t even touched his croissant yet.

When Arthur’s halfway through moodily eating his croissant, Gwen glances at him and he feels like a jerk, so he smiles at her. She blushes and waves a little and his entire mood lifts, like a cloud was hiding the sun, and it finally moved. He lifts his phone and wiggles it a little to indicate he’s going to text her.

She lifts a finger and mouths “one second,” as someone had just walked up to the counter to order.

Arthur sends the text anyway. It reads _I like you._ He almost adds a heart, but panics at the last moment and doesn’t.

He watches Gwen putter about making someone’s coffee. She hands it to the customer, a tall, skinny blonde, takes another order and looks at her phone. He sees her smile at the screen and type, and 2 seconds later his phone dings.

She sent him a heart.

Arthur grins. He sends a heart right back. Merlin glances at his phone screen and starts laughing.

“Shut up, Merlin.”

For once in his life, he actually feels happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first published fanfiction, and I'm really nervous, haha.  
> Constructive criticism is welcome! (Pls criticize me I need it)  
> Thanks for reading.  
> <3 Meli


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